7 September 2015 - NICE recommends that the drug pembrolizumab (also called Keytruda and manufactured by Merck, Sharp & Dohme) is made available on the NHS as a treatment for some patients with advanced melanoma which is either unresectable (when the full tumour cannot be removed) or metastatic (the cancer has spread to other parts of the body). Pembrolizumab has a marketing authorisation in the UK as monotherapy ‘for the treatment of advanced (unresectable or metastatic) melanoma in adults’. This is broader than the indication covered by this appraisal which looked at using pembrolizumab in people who had already had ipilimumab. Pembrolizumab is recommended for the indication covered by the company evidence submission, that is:

• after the disease has progressed with ipilimumab and, for BRAF V600 mutation-positive disease, a BRAF or MEK inhibitor (such as dabrafenib or vemurafenib [BRAF inhibitors] or tramentinib or cobimetinib [MEK inhibitors]), and

• when the company provides pembrolizumab with the discount agreed in the patient access scheme.

For more details, go to: http://www.nice.org.uk/news/press-and-media/nice-recommends-pembrolizumab-for-advanced-skin-cancer